There comes a time when you need to furnish a room. As I lay there waiting for Miss Kitty to fall asleep I dream up new furniture. Sometimes those lofty dreams and reality should not mix. And then I decide to try and make it anyway. These are the 3 main seating items in the bedroom all made by moi in my first real attempt at making my own original upholstered furniture.
The Desk Chair
I decided I wanted a cute curved chair. But, the thought of making this with wood didn't seem like a smart choice. Bending and cutting and hoping it wouldn't split left me afraid to continue. Then I looked down and saw the foam board beside my work table. Voila, a solution.
First, don't make your first ever complicated chair using a striped fabric that you indeed to try to match up the stripes. Or worse, use fabric remnants and worry that if you mess up then you won't have enough fabric.
I started by cutting a square for the seat and rounding off the corners at the back. Then I cut the back and arm piece free hand. To get the curve I made thin slices in the foam board. I then smeared it with wood glue and used an elastic band to hold the form around the seat.
The fabric was adhered with a thin layer of wood glue and the piping is embroidery floss smeared with white glue and twisted. I used 2 pins at each end of the floss to hold it in the twist while it dried.
The legs are wood dowels that I stained grey. I drilled into the foam board at an angle and jammed the legs in. I "leveled" them by just pushing down on the chair until all the legs seemed to look ok and called it a day.
The Arm Chair
The arm chair started with the MitchyMooMiniatures Couch and Chair Tutorial. I had previously made the matching chair to the tutorials sofa, so it was a good starting point for my new design.
I made the chair slightly more narrow and most importantly, I used foam board instead of wood. I took the arms and made a curve to them. I thought this was more "curl up and read a book" then the original design.
At first the wood was supposed to be on the arm rest. Then I decided I should continue it down the front. At that point, I kept going with it and decided to trim in all in wood. What the *%$# was I thinking!
It look at least 4 attempts at super fine scores on the 1/16th balsa strips to get it to not only curved but not SNAP. And my "mitre" corners were lucky cuts. Amazingly lucky!
I am most proud of my tufted pillow. I used 3 pieces of Elmer's craft foam on 1 piece of foam board. The same 1/16th inch thick foam you can buy in the craft section at Walmart. Usually it's in kiddy colours, and for reference, its the same foam and thickness you get when you buy the kiddy foam numbers and letters, but its thin and pliable and doesn't dissolve when you use strong glue.
After I wrapped the foam and foam board in my fabric, I used grey thread, made a knot and pulled it through. I actually made at least 2-3 passes on each dimple to make it more pronounced. But this is where the foam is amazing.....to get the little marks between the dimples I used a blunt scoring tool and made a line. The tool indents a line in the foam and looks like you pulled that thread SO hard that you made amazing tufting. I dotted a tiny bit of paint in the holes to make them darker and more pronounced.
My only annoying flaw on the chair is the fact my Ikea fabric scraps were a wee bit too short to wrap fully around the back cushion. You can see the add on piece on the bottom right. Grrrrr.
The Bench
I also decided that my original simple bench seemed, well, too simple. Again, what the &$(# was I thinking? I made a rectangle from balsa trim and did mitered corners. I had some issues with the wood glue taking stain and the wood even taking the stain evenly. Lots of sanding and 4 coats of stain later I was happy with the result.
I then upholstered a thin rectangle of balsa with foam and my black vinyl (aka faux leather). Then I jammed the upholstered piece into the wood frame. I didn't do the framing around the upholstery for several reasons. First, I didn't want glue on the vinyl (I won't come off) and second, you can see between the cushion and the frame so I wanted to stain the frame inside too.
I used 2 pieces of square balsa dowel for each leg. I glued them together and wrapped them in the vinyl too.
The Celine purse was from Ebay. It said 1/6th scale, but it totally works with 1:12th scale. Those bags are meant to be slightly on the larger side. A Celine bag is on my list of handbag wants. I have a bit of a handbag problem.....sigh.
There you have it! A very loooooooong post about my first foray into upholstered items to plop your butt on!
